Manager Alex Neil told the waiting press that his team needed to improve on their defending, after letting in 17 goals in the last five games, before criticising the decisions of Kevin Friend, after his team was defeated 3-0 at home.
Neil made five changes to the team who were defeated 4-5 by Liverpool at Carrow Road, with the Scotsman dropping the likes of Russell Martin and Wes Hoolahan with Martin Olsson, Alex Tettey, Youssouf Mulumbu and Matt Jarvis welcomed into the fray, and Timm Klose given his debut as a Canary. Robbie Brady and Graham Dorrans missed out through illness.
City were down 1-0 within minutes of kickoff as Dele Alli’s right footed shot found the bottom right corner of the net from a Tottenham corner.
Attempts from either side would see both teams unlucky to grab anything before the goalscorer was fouled by Sebastien Bassong in the penalty area, only for Harry Kane to convert the penalty into the bottom right corner.
Norwich were caught offside several times with Dieumerci Mbokani, Steven Naismith, Ivo Pinto and Bassong all victims of the offside flag.
Former Canary Kane grabbed his second goal of the match in the 90th minute to finish the game.
Speaking to the press after the game, Alex Neil said that going behind early on would always see the Canaries struggle.
Once you concede in the first minute and a half, we make it difficult for ourselves. You work all week on the back four and we concede in 90 seconds.
Neil was also not too shy to criticise the decision of the referee, calling the incident which caused the spot kick the “softest penalty I’ve seen all season”.
The penalty is the softest penalty I’ve seen all season. If it was a clear penalty, I’d be the first to hold my hands up. You can tell by the player’s reactions. We didn’t get our fair share of the decisions and that cost us.
However, Neil also didn’t shy away from looking at his own team, ensuring he wasn’t blaming the referee for City’s misfortunes against the Lilywhites. As reported by Paddy Davitt of the Eastern Daily Press:
I’m not one to complain about referees. I am not blaming the referee. We didn’t lose the game because of him. We defended too poorly, although [for Spurs’] third goal Martin [Olsson] is nudged. I spoke to the referee and he said “is it my fault you lost?”. He was being sarcastic obviously.
Whilst speaking of his disappointment towards his team, Alex Neil also stated his annoyance of seeing Alex Tettey collect his 10th yellow card, leading to his suspension against Aston Villa on Saturday.
I spoke to him after the game. It was a stupid thing to do, especially in 88 minutes when the game is done. Now he’s missing for Aston Villa.
The game at Villa Park with see the Canaries battle it out against a team sitting at the bottom of the Premier League, with only one win against Crystal Palace in the last 10 games. Alex Neil is adamant his team must not take it lightly.
The next game becomes huge for us now. The Villa game was always a big game. We’ve got important matches coming up and we need to pick up points.
